Compared to Mr. Yunioshi, Gifford’s performance was just a little bit of ching-chong on national TV.Â If you don’t think Mr. Yunioshi was offensive, then the clip of Gifford is nothing.Â Al Roker is as much at fault as Gifford if you’re going to take offense.

It’s not that people who take issue with Gifford or Mr. Yunioshi don’t have a sense of humor. These sorts of things are a tired act that may seem like harmless banter and probably have noÂ maliciousÂ intent, but they evolved from racist origins where the goal was to dehumanize.

There always seem to be polarizing responses to incidents such as this. It’s interesting how different the commentsÂ on Gawker are to the comments on the Sacramento Bee stories about deleting scenes from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” the cancellation of its screening andÂ Rooney’s response. Quite a different audience.